The present invention relates to stressed skin post and beam buildings, and more particularly to such buildings having a novel connection or joint between a post and plurality of beams joined thereto, and having stressed skin exterior and interior walls which cooperate with posts and beams to obtain unique advantages.
Post and beam buildings utilize a framework comprising upright posts and horizontal beams jointed to the posts. To this framework there are added exterior and interior walls for a typical dwelling structure, or only exterior walls for a typical barn structure. The posts and beams typically comprise timber in structures such as those disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 1,907,119. Post and beam structures such as those disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 1,907,119, have for many decades included the following features. First, the joint between a post and the beams connected thereto has utilized reinforcing braces. These braces are typically short lengths of timber diagonally oriented with respect to the post and beams and connected at one end to the post and at the other end to one of the beams. The foregoing feature has the disadvantage of resulting in the need for a large number of basic building elements for a post and beam building. In general the number of basic building elements required for a building, the higher the cost for the building elements. Additionally, even where the post, beams, and reinforcing braces are manufactured or precut to reasonably close tolerances, there still exists the further disadvantage of the need for a skilled artisan to align the various parts vis-a-vis each other and vis-a-vis the desired orientation of the overall building. Second, exterior walls and interior walls (for example, for a dwelling structure) have been added to a completed framework of posts and beams to provide exterior and interior walls only as an incidential feature. A disadvantage of the foregoing is that exterior and interior walls do not otherwise cooperate with the post and beam framework in significant ways, thereby underutilizing the capabilities of these building elements.
Many of these problems are overcome by the post and beam construction system disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,409,763 issued to the inventor of the present invention. However, this prior art system does not provide the integrity of structure provided by a stress skin structure nor does it necessarily provide the air tightness of thermal properties desired in energy efficient housing of today.